A veteran cop explains what’s really happening inside Canadian policing...

After more than 30 years on the job, 18 in homicide, Hank Idsigna has a few things to say.

Early in my career, before I started covering politics full time, I spent a lot of time around cops. In Montreal, I was a general assignment reporter, meaning you go to where you are needed, where your bosses send you.

For me, that meant showing up at a lot of crime scenes, a lot of murder scenes, talking to cops.

From what I recall, there were more than 60 murders in Montreal the last full year that I worked there, and I was sent to about half of them including a couple of gruesome scenes with multiple victims. It’s a tough thing to do and can lead you to dark places.

I did that less frequently as I moved on to Ottawa and then Toronto and focused on politics. As I like to tell people when they ask why I chose politics over crime - fewer people die and the touching is generally consensual among adults.

You get to know that there are cops who are bullshitters and cops who actually know what is going on.

Retired Toronto cop Hank Idsigna definitely knows what is going on.

He wrote a memoir recently about his 34 years on the job, including his time leading the homicide division in Canada’s largest city.

If you, or someone you know likes true crime, police memoirs and the like, you will enjoy this book.

Though I think calling the book a true crime book sells it short, not that there is anything wrong with that genre, it’s just that Hank gives you much more.

I had a chance to have an extended chat with Hank last week for the Full Comment Podcast to discuss his book, his time in policing and the politics of policing. I could have asked him so many more questions, but I do try to keep these episodes tight and under an hour.

We discussed the realities of homicide work, contrasting television crime dramas with the slow, paperwork-heavy reality of real investigations. We discussed Hank’s role in high-profile Toronto cases that garnered national headlines, the role of politics in policing, anti-Semitism within the Toronto Police Service, crime statistics, and the challenges of public safety and gun violence.

I hope you enjoy.

From the official show notes:

As unit commander in the largest homicide squad in the country, Hank Idsinga has seen more than most people would ever want to. He discusses with Brian what it’s really like in blue, the many things that are done right, and the many things done wrong, including the recent exposé of corruption by some Toronto officers. The author of the new book The High Road: Confessions of a Homicide Cop, Idsinga reveals the vitriolic antisemitism he saw on the force, and discusses the “abysmal” handling of anti-Israel demonstrators in Toronto. He also busts myths about purported low crime rates and politically popular gun bans, and explains how real policing is nothing like those shows on TV. (Recorded July 23, 2026)